Commitment to Sustainability Shapes Lifelong Path: Alumna Jennifer Shepherd Shares How CAEE Affected Her Career
Jennifer Shepherd's successful consulting firm provides expert support in environmental compliance, governmental affairs, and corporate social responsibility.
Little did alumna Jennifer Shepherd (MSCE 1996) know that a professor she had during her undergraduate education would have such an influence on her future. As a matter of fact, their research collaboration would eventually lead her to the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) department.
While studying at the University of Guelph in Canada, she worked during the summertime with Richard Corsi, currently Bantel Professor of Professional Practice in CAEE, and his graduate students. Although rare for an undergraduate, she was encouraged to write papers and posters and even run some of her own experiments. According to Corsi, she became an invaluable part of his research team, and he was glad he took a chance on her.
The early research experience gave Shepherd the confidence to pursue an advanced degree. Just about the time she graduated with her bachelor’s degree, Corsi accepted a position at The University of Texas at Austin in CAEE. Her moving to follow him was natural, so that she could continue the research she had started as an enthusiastic and highly capable undergraduate.
Shepherd says starting a business and making it successful is an ongoing series of proud moments.
"I’ve always considered it a great stroke of good luck in my life to have found my way to UT and to Austin," she says.
Shepherd, now co-owner of a successful consulting firm, fondly recalls making the move from Canada to central Texas. "When I moved to Texas from Canada, I was quite taken with the culture of Texas life: music, food, football, and school spirit – it was quite overwhelming and infectious," she says. "Our gang (the entire class of 36) would often get together in huge numbers for events and outings: Zilker Jazz Festivals, Guy Forsyth shows, weekly games of Ultimate Frisbee on the school fields, and potluck dinners for just about every holiday."
As a UT CAEE master’s student, she excelled once again. Shepherd studied toxic chemical emissions from industrial process drains and served as a key member of her research team. She was able to jump into her research project from the first day and make great progress. The project’s funders were located in Houston, and the research team met with them regularly to provide updates. The positive response from the funding organization and the discourse between the two groups helped Shepherd make a connection between academia and the real world in a meaningful way.
Shepherd’s interest in solving problems and working with people were partially what led her to engineering in the first place. During her senior year of high school, when she was still in the process of figuring out her next step, she expressed interest in those areas as well as in science, math, and nature. She told her mentor, "If there is such a thing as environmental engineering, I’d like to do that." The response was "There is!"
After graduating from CAEE with her master’s degree, many engineering firms recognized a rising star, and Shepherd gained invaluable work experience at ERM-Southwest and Solectron Texas. Within two years of joining Solectron Texas, she was promoted to Corporate Manager of Environmental Stability/Affairs for the entire firm. This promotion required her to become knowledgeable of environmental compliance issues and regulations in dozens of countries throughout the world.
"Staying flexible and positive are two important attitudes to hold after graduating from an engineering program", she says. "You have spent 4-6 years learning how to solve problems, and you should not be afraid to jump into something new that you may not have exactly experienced in school. Trusting your fundamentals and having a good attitude about your chances of success are a great place to start."
In 2005, she co-founded a company, Canyon Snow Consulting, and is now a principal there. Shepherd leads the firm’s environmental practice, working with clients to achieve compliance with global regulations and to design and implement programs that support environmental sustainability in their workplace and in their products. The environmental practice is closely related to Canyon Snow’s Corporate Social Responsibility work, which expands beyond environmental areas to include social and economic issues while applying the fundamentals of business alignment, stakeholder engagement, internal and external communications, operational efficiency, and supply chain compliance.
"In the workplace, I have learned how important it is to communicate clearly and to be sure people are on the same page, especially when working together on complex or amorphous problems," she says. "I’ve also learned that it also really important to understand that everyone in your environment (colleagues, clients, your boss, your direct reports, etc.) has goals for a given situation. Figuring out what motivates others and finding a way to align and meet their goals at the same time you meet yours is the art of getting things done."
Clients of Canyon Snow Consulting are extremely visible corporations: Palm Inc., Juniper Networks, Sun Microsystems, Seagate Technology and Clorox, to name a few. Canyon Snow works with these entities to become more responsible in their social and environmental affairs while also creating customer and stakeholder value.
"Starting a business and making it successful is an ongoing source of proud moments," she says. "We have clients who are glad they’ve hired us, and we have partner companies and sub-contractors for whom we’ve been able to create work opportunities. We’ve created jobs for a full-time and a part-time employee and are continuing to grow the business. It has been a great experience – very challenging and incredibly rewarding at the same time."